


Pendragon Versus Cake

by AeonTheDimensionalGirl



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: (hinted) - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arthur & Merlin Were Married in Camelot, Arthur Pendragon Returns (Merlin), Author Is Sleep Deprived, Baking, Birthday Cake, Caring Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Immortal Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Immortal Leon (Merlin), Immortal Merlin (Merlin), Leon is a good bro, M/M, Post-Canon, Self-Indulgent, Sir Leon The Long Suffering (Merlin), Soft Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25881820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AeonTheDimensionalGirl/pseuds/AeonTheDimensionalGirl
Summary: Arthur wasn’t going to give up. The former King of Camelot had a goal, and Pendragons were nothing short of stubborn and never gave up.This was going to be the best cake to ever cake or so may the Triple Goddess help him-Or, Arthur tries to bake a cake for Merlin’s birthday.
Relationships: Leon & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Leon & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 311





	Pendragon Versus Cake

Arthur nearly messed up his plan the moment his alarm began to vibrate.

Still groggy with sleep and slight hangover from the New Year celebrations, he knocked over the bedside lamp in an attempt to stop the buzzing from waking Merlin up.

Thankfully he managed to catch it before it hit the floor alongside his phone, and he hurriedly snuck a small (and totally not panicked) glance behind him when he heard a mumble from his husband.

But Merlin remained asleep, having simply changed his sleeping position to curling around Arthur’s pillow, most likely chasing his warmth.

He did that a lot ever since Arthur had come back, one year ago.

Letting out a small sigh of relief at seeing Merlin still sleeping soundly, Arthur silently got out of bed, hissing under his breath when his bare feet touched the cold stone floor, and he proceeded to lightly hop towards the wardrobe for comfortable clothes before slipping out of the room.

* * *

The wonders of the 21st century will never cease to amaze Arthur, but right now he’s fighting the urge to throw the laptop off the counter in a fit of frustration.

He has the cake ingredients, sneakily brought without Merlin’s knowledge and stored in the back of the refrigerator to keep them as secret as possible. And he was sure that he had measured and mixed the ‘dry’ ingredients and the ‘not-dry’ ones just as the recipe instructed him to.

So why there were hard lumps on the batter and it hurt to mix it by hand? And why, just _why_ , were the eggs refusing to cooperate with him?

If this was still the 5th century, he would have thought that someone had cursed his attempts to bake his husband a cake from scratch.

But magic was still slowly coming back to the land after being dormant for so long after his death, so….

This didn’t make any sense.

But! Arthur wasn’t going to give up. The former King of Camelot had a goal, and Pendragons were nothing short of stubborn and never gave up.

This was going to be the best cake to ever cake or so may the Triple Goddess help him-

He had been a king, had gone through hellish council meetings about grain storage, had openly defied his father’s legacy and not only brought magic back but married the most powerful warlock of the earth, he had commanded armies and defeated evil sorcerers and monsters.

He had _died_ , and had been resurrected fifteen centuries later for fucks sake!

Arthur was not going to be bested by a vanilla rainbow cake recipe.

He was _not_.

* * *

He was bested by the fucking vanilla cake recipe.

Arthur could only stare with dread taking hold of him by the seconds at the messy disaster that was now over the kitchen counter and himself, electric mixer still in hand.

He didn’t even know how this happened.

Sure, taking out the mixer had been mostly out of desperation, especially since the woman who wrote the recipe insisted that it had to be by hand, and he can only remember making a small prayer to the Triple Goddess that the noise wouldn’t wake neither Merlin nor Leon, even if the rooms in the small manor they lived in were a bit far from the kitchen area.

To this point… this called for reinforcements.

With the cake batter (if it could even be called that) still dripping off him, Arthur searched for his phone with his free hand, going through the speed dial as he stared at the wall feeling completely devoid of emotion.

_“Ewo?”_

“Leon” Arthur simultaneously hoped that his misery was not _that_ noticeable and that his old friend has too hangover to notice it, “I need your help”

* * *

Leon took one look at the state of the kitchen and blanched.

Which was _something_ when one took into account that he had lived through the last fifteen centuries and had Seen Things™.

“What-” he whispered in horror as he turned to stare at the blond, “What the _fuck-_ ”

Arthur threw his arms up in frustration.

“I don’t know” he bemoaned, “I just- mixed up the stuff and…” he gestured to the mess, which was pretty self-explanatory.

“What were you trying to do?” Leon asked as he dipped his fingers on a big pile of goo batter as he gave him a wry smile, “One of Gaius’s hangover tonics?”

“Hilarious” Arthur deadpanned. Both of them knew very well that Merlin had perfected that cure to make it actually _drinkable_ , “But no”

“Right” his old friend said, “I can obviously see that you were trying to cook…” he squinted at the batter in his fingers, “… Something”

He gave Arthur the old and nearly forgotten look of ‘ _Tell me so we can see what excuse we can make-up for your father so he won’t be mad at you’_.

The blond sighed, running his hand through his hair as he looked at the mess with distress.

“I, er…” he shifted, feeling his face heat, “IwantedtobakeMerlinacake”

“What?”

“I wanted to bake Merlin a cake” Arthur said with more clarity, shifting his eyes towards the laptop, “Er… because… um… you know that his birthday tends to be forgotten because everyone is nursing a hangover thanks to the New Year celebrations and, well…” he felt his face grow hotter, “I wanted to do something nice for him, by my own hand” he finally mumbled, daring to look back at Leon, whose eyes were wide open with surprise.

“It’s just that” Arthur let out a small huff of frustration, “Back in Camelot, I just had to wave my hand and say the word, you know? To give him something, let it be books, clothes, going on a picnic” he admits.

“Sire, I’m going to stop you right there” Leon calling him with his former titles usually means that what he’s about to say, Arthur better fucking listen because he’s being an idiot, “That makes it sound as if you never gave Merlin anything while thinking of him”

Arthur gaped at him, and he suddenly felt himself go cold.

“That’s not-”

“Let me finish” Leon smiled, “Just because you didn’t make it yourself doesn’t mean that Merlin didn’t love it. Every single book you ever gifted him? He treasured it like gold, same with the clothes. And I know for a fact that for the picnics you always made sure that his favorite foods had been packed” he gestured at the mess, “Baking a cake is no different, you don’t have to justify that you care for him”

“I know that” Arthur mumbled, “But I just wanted to make him something, by my own hand, no help at all, not done by someone else; just me”

“Understandable” Leon said, a goofy grin on his face, “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to smother Merlin with gifts” he added with a laugh before taking another look at the kitchen and frowning, “But I still don’t understand what happened here”

“You’re welcome to guess” Arthur said with distress, “I swear I followed the instructions to the letter from the blog in which I found the recipe”

Leon blinked.

“Were you trying to do it from scratch?” he asked. At Arthur’s nod, he added, “And had you ever done it before?”

“No” Arthur admitted with some embarrassment, “To be honest I think this whole disaster here is because I found the mixing of the dry ingredients a little complicated” he rubbed the back of his neck, grimacing when he found flour laying there.

How the fuck had that even gotten there?!

“Why didn’t you buy a cake mix?” Leon questioned, “They cost less than £5 pounds at Tesco”

“Because that’s the easy way out?” Arthur huffed in an attempt to hide his uncertainty, “Apparently one doesn’t do that when baking”

“…. Did the blog in which you found the recipe say that?” Leon asked in a resigned tone.

“I- yes?” Arthur couldn’t help but feel confused at that while his ginger friend went over to the laptop and quickly read through the page. He grew more confused when his old knight let out a groan.

“Maiden’s mercy- Alright, that mistake is on Merlin and me” Leon mumbled to seemingly nobody before staring back at Arthur, “Never listen to that ‘advice’, especially if is from a mummy blog-” he side-eyed the screen, “And especially if the name is Kristal with a K and her husband Brad spends all the time playing golf”

“What?” Arthur whispered in complete confusion.

“Trust me” Leon had a look on his face that spoke of witnessing ancient terrors, “Just- trust me on this one”

“Alright” Arthur finally said, “But what do I do now?” he had planned on taking the whole morning to bake and put the icing on the cake before presenting it to Merlin along with brunch, but with everything going wrong time seemed to be drawing short.

“How long until Merlin wakes up?” Leon asked.

“About three hours” Arthur responded, looking at the clock on the wall with some apprehension.

“Right” his old friend mumbled, scratching his beard in thought before typing something on the laptop and nodding to himself, smiling in triumph at whatever he found while he looked up to Arthur.

“I’ll be back in about twenty minutes” he said.

“Wait, what?” the blond felt the confusion coming back on full force.

Leon laughed.

“You’re taking the easy way out” was all he told him as he put on his coat and boots, seemingly ignoring the fact that he was still in his sleep clothes, “Try to clean up the mess in the meantime, especially the mixing bowl” and he was gone.

Arthur stared at the closed door for a good minute before turning towards the laptop, and couldn’t help the laugh of near-hysterical relief that escaped him when he saw a new vanilla rainbow cake recipe that mostly relied on the cake mix from the grocery store.

* * *

Things actually went smoothly after Leon dropped back in with two boxes of vanilla cake mix, and yes, it was definitely easier now to bake the cake.

“Thank you again” Arthur said as he sat vigil in front of the oven to check over the second batch of cake. The first batch was currently cooling on the counter; the red, orange and yellow cakes ended a little bit overcooked over the edges, but at least the middle was as soft as the recipe instructed.

“Not a problem” Leon replied from the sink. He had insisted to start helping with the rest of the food, “I know this is important to you”

Arthur smiled, jumping slightly when the alarm sounded to let him know that the second batch was done.

“Did you get Merlin something?” he asked as he took out the cake pans from the oven, checking and feeling relieved that with this batch the edges had not overcooked, “I know I’m new to the immortality group, but I’ve been meaning to ask”

Leon hummed as he mixed the eggs.

“I always try to get him a ridiculous animal. It’s our own little tradition with birthday gifts” he revealed, giving out a secretive wink, and Arthur laughed, realizing it was also a joke in regards of their names that had been going since Camelot.

“So the little animal statues around the manor are from you?” he guessed as he prepared the buttercream icing, Merlin’s favorite.

“Indeed” Leon admitted with a chuckle, “I got him an antique dragon. Found it when I traveled to Shanghai last month”

“A dragon doesn’t sound very ridiculous” Arthur said as he started assembling the cake, handling the individual colors with care, almost afraid to break them.

(Because if one of them did after all the disaster that had occurred, he _was_ going to cry)

“True” the ginger admitted, “But I thought that it would have some meaning, now that you’re back” he added, smiling at the former king, who flushed.

“I’m sure Merlin will appreciate it” he murmured, not really knowing what to say.

Sometimes… sometimes he forgot that it was not only his husband who waited for him. But a part of him was eternally grateful that Leon had also stayed in the realm of the living, keeping Merlin company and preventing him (and each other) from spiraling.

Leon simply patted him in the shoulder, giving him a look of understanding before turning to continue preparing the food.

They spent the rest of the hour putting out finishing touches on the food and the cake, Leon actually letting out a groan when he sees that Arthur wrote _‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLOTPOLE’_ on the pastry.

Arthur simply snickered, knowing that Merlin wouldn’t mind, if anything the idiot was more than likely going to laugh before telling him that that was _his_ word.

“Arthur?” Merlin’s sleepy voice echoed from the stairs and through the walls, “Where are you?”

“In the kitchen!” Arthur answered, hurrying to light the candles on the cake before putting himself on the way to block the pastry as his husband entered the kitchen.

Merlin looked like the definition of ‘Just Dragged Myself out of Bed’; black hair sticking out in different directions, sleep shirt nearly falling of his shoulder and revealing a sharp collarbone while azure eyes blinked hard against the lights and clearly fighting against his own hangover.

He looked beautiful.

Once Merlin took in the state Arthur was in, he blinked.

“What” he squinted his eyes at him, “Happened to you?!”

“Don’t know what you mean, _Mer_ lin” Arthur shrugged, acting nonchalant while biting a smile as his husband spluttered.

“You’re covered in flour! And… do I even want to know what that goo is?” Merlin said, approaching him with light exasperation on his face, “Morning, Leon” he added with a nod in the ginger’s direction but not taking his eyes of Arthur, who was doing everything in his power to block the cake.

Curse Merlin for being an inch taller than him.

“Morning, Merlin” Leon greeted back with noticeable amusement on his tone, and Arthur resisted the urge to turn and glare at him.

Instead he focused on how Merlin’s eyes glow gold and the blond nearly sobs with the relief at knowing that he’s no longer covered in flour and disaster cake batter. The warlock smiled in satisfaction, before going still.

“Hey” his husband blinked again, sniffing the air, “Did one of you light a candle? Something smells burning”

“Ah, well” Arthur hates how nervous he suddenly feels, “As a matter of fact-” he’s still horrible with words, so he simply moves out of the way, finally letting Merlin see the cake.

His husband’s gasp of surprise is enough to give him bravery to continue.

“Happy Birthday, Merlin” Arthur whispered, smiling softly at the love of his life, taking in the details on his face, how the realization and then delight takes over his features but also his eyes shine brightly with some tears, because even after all this time, Merlin is still a girls petticoat.

Merlin turns to him, and suddenly Arthur finds himself enveloped in a tight hug, which he is quick and happy to return, before his husband breaks off slightly to also kiss him.

“Did you do it yourself?” Merlin asks when they resurface for air, resting their foreheads together.

“Yes” Arthur replied, “But granted this wouldn’t have happened if Leon hadn’t step in to help as well”

They both turn to look at the former knight, who had at one point taken out his own phone and had been recording the whole moment without them noticing.

At being caught, Leon simply gave them a wave, smiling before saying,

“I only saved him from doing something even more stupid”

“Leon!”

Merlin laughed.

“Thank you” he said, smiling with that loony grin that Arthur loves seeing on him.

“I believe this is the part in which you blow the candles before they melt into the cake” he told his husband, who gave him a small slap on the shoulder.

“Prat, it’s my birthday, be nice!” he replied, but proceeds to blow the candles, bursting out in more laughter once he notices the message on the cake before telling Arthur that that’s his word.

* * *

“You know” Merlin started to say, hours later as he snuggled onto Arthur’s side, the dark purple blanket that Arthur had gifted him (commissioned to be embroidered with white dragons that resembled how Aithusa had once looked) laying on their laps while they watched the snow fall outside.

“I think Leon would appreciate a cake similar to this one for his own birthday” he suggested while wiping a stripe of buttercream frosting from the plate in his hand.

“You’re helping me bake it” Arthur instantly replied.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been baking a lot while in quarantine and this came to me while I was mixing up Betty Crocker's chocolate supreme brownies. The cake that Arthur makes at the end thanks to Leon's help actually exists in their website!


End file.
